Construction began this week on Main Street, the one way street at the heart of Redding’s business district. Using state and federal grants, the town is improving the streetscape to include sidewalks, benches and street lights. less

Construction began this week on Main Street, the one way street at the heart of Redding’s business district. Using state and federal grants, the town is improving the streetscape to include sidewalks, benches ... more

REDDING -- After nine years of planning, Georgetown's Main Street is getting a makeover.

Construction crews began fixing the drainage on the street this week, and will install sidewalks, benches, street lamps and pedestrian crosswalks in the town's one-road business district.

"I think it's fabulous," said Shelby Baxter, who was picking up her daughter from dance class on Main Street on Wednesday. Baxter lives within walking distance of Main Street on Covenant Lane.

"We just moved here in September," Baxter said. "Knowing that there was a plan to develop the district swayed our decision."

All the parents she talks to are excited to have a pedestrian-friendly area to take their children, Baxter said. She comes to the district once a week and this week, she and her husband plan to celebrate their anniversary at Pearl, an upscale restaurant on Main Street.

"We like the feeling of rural Connecticut, but also that there are things we can do nearby," Baxter said.

Some of the storefronts have a sidewalk in front of their building, but shoppers usually park and walk down the middle of the street to get to the shops.

"I've had soccer moms almost run me over four times," said Roy Nealon. The Monroe man said he occasionally comes down to the Georgetown street to have lunch with friends.

The streetscape will have a 5-foot-wide sidewalk going down one side of the one-way street.

Georgetown has a mix of restaurants, a specialty food store, an ice cream shop and yoga studio.

The streetscape also includes plans to put a lighted crosswalk on Route 107 where it intersects the two halves of the village, so people can safely cross from one side to the other.

With the 5-foot sidewalks going in, there will probably be less parking than there is now, Ketcham added. The town has not finalized how many parking spaces there will be, she said.

"Parking is one of the biggest challenges we have down here," said Ralph Bosch, president of Georgetown Village Restoration. "In some respects, it will have to get worse before it gets better. The town of Redding has said on countless occasions that they recognize the parking problem is a municipal problem and will require a municipal solution."

The town is already working on finding satellite parking, Bosch said. Churches and businesses that are only open during the day and just yards away could provide parking for the area if safe crosswalks are built to connect them to Georgetown, Bosch said.

But business owners said they were not worried about parking. There is already a shortage, they said, and their customers already park in those satellite lots and walk over.

"People understand," said Flori Osorio, who owns Rancho Allegre. He has owned his restaurant for 17 years and can attract 200 customers on a weekend night. He said the lack of parking has never stopped people from coming.

The process started when Redding got a grant from the Housatonic Valley of Elected Officials to do a parking study in Main Street, which resulted in a plan for streetscape enhancement. Subsequently, Redding received a state grant for $500,000 in 1991, and then another federal grant for $700,000.

The village of Georgetown was born after the Gilbert & Bennett wire mill was built in the 1880s. The street had apartments and liquor stores that supported the factory workers, Bosch said.

The wire mill was abandoned in the 1980s, but the company that owns it now, Georgetown Land Development, plans to turn it into a mixed-use community. Proposed plans at the wire mill also include building a Metro-North train station there with a multistory parking garage.

Ketcham said she envisions that development to be complementary to the Georgetown streetscape.